Chosen One of the Day: Boshi

Internet legend Waluigi is well known to those devoted to his Wa!-ness. During the production of 2000’s Mario Tennis, Waluigi was created so that Wario could have a doubles partner. The world, Nintendo decided, was not ready for an evil princess (this was long before the rise of Bowsette), and created an evil version of Luigi to bro it out with Wario. This began the idea that any Mario character could have an evil counterpart, whose name likely involved a portmanteau of the hero’s name and “warui,” a Japanese adjective for bad.

Or did it? Four years before Waluigi was a high-pitched “wa!” in Charles Martinet’s voice box, there was another evil version of a Mario mainstay. And his name was… Boshi.

Okay, Boshi’s name in Japanese is Washi, playing on the same convention as Wario (“warui” Yoshi). But don’t let Nintendo of America’s translation of Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars fool you; Boshi is a total wa!.  

Boshi is what we '90s scientists call totally rad. Spiked collar? Check. Sunglasses? You know it! Fast like Sonic? He rules Yo’ster Isle with an iron fist because he beat all the other Yoshis in the famous Mushroom Derby. True, part of the game involves Mario beating Boshi in a race by tempting Boshi out of retirement with Yoshi Cookies, but we can’t blame Boshi for his weakness to cookies. Every punk dinohorse has his price.

And maybe having a weakness like that is for the best; Wario, Waluigi, and Boshi would be an unstoppable team-up for the Mushroom Kingdom crew. Boshi hasn’t been seen in a Mario game since Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars, but I say let Boshi meet his brothers-in-petty-evil, you cowards!